Love. Greed. Kindness. Poverty. Famine. Wealth. Locusts. The Good Earth (1937) has it all, and then some. Based on Pearl S. Buck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the film stars Paul Muni, Luise Rainer and Walter Connolly and is a well-deserved award winner. With China now a world power, the film is of even more interest as it shows peasant life during the country’s transitional period.

Farmer Wang Lung ( Muni) takes kitchen slave O-lan (Rainer) as his wife, sight unseen. Neither knows what to expect, but both look toward the future with optimism. O-lan cooks and cleans, works beside Wang in the fields, and bears his children without complaint and few words. An ambitious man, Wang acquires more and more fields.

When a draught causes famine, he refuses to sell his lands, instead moving his family to the big city along with hordes of other refuges. There he struggles for work to feed his family, and O-lan gets caught up in a riot which is a foreshadowing of the coming Mao takeover of the country. O-lan finds jewels which Wang uses to move the family back home. Now wealthy and more than a bit pompous, Wang takes a second wife. We are heartbroken for O-lan when her husband takes the pearls (which were rightfully hers) and gives them to the new wife. Of course, he learns his lesson the hard way, and he returns, pearls in hand, to the woman who provided the source of his wealth and who toiled beside him in good times and bad. But is it too late?

We are now used to the high quality of computer generated special effects, but we should be impressed with the outstanding special effects that were created in classic films through ingenuity and "the magic of the camera." Case in point is the eye-popping scene of the attack of locusts. The sky darkens with the pests, and the farm workers are covered with them as they fight to save the crops. The walk south to escape the famine and the subsequent train ride are epic in scope, with truly a "cast of thousands."

Luise Rainer received the second of her back to back Oscars for her role as O-lan and deservedly so. Throughout the film she either smiles happily or looks shell-shocked. Muni was outstanding, but not even nominated. Karl Freund received the Oscar for cinematography, and the film was nominated for best director, best picture and best editing. Producer Irving Thalberg died during the making of the film. Although many cast members are Asian, none of the main characters are played by Chinese actors. However, Elder Son was played by Chinese actor Keye Luke who went on to have a successful Hollywood career as a character actor.

Despite its few flaws, The Good Earth is a wonderful film which offers insight into a time long past, both in an emerging China and in filmmaking itself.

Special Features

•Vintage Musical Short Hollywood Party. This is a corny, mostly Chinese-themed short which MGM used to showcase its stable of starlets and briefly introduce a few of its stars, including Clark Gable. Lots of singing and dancing, with the Hollywood beauties parading in elaborate, Las Vegas style costumes, and Anna Mae Wong modeling some lovely clothes. Very weird.

•Supreme Court of Films Picks the Champions newsreel. Actors are shown receiving Oscars, but the film is so badly deteriorated that the voices are hard to understand.

•Theatrical trailer.

Director: Sidney Franklin

Writer: Screenplay Talbot Jennings & Tess Slesinger, based on the novel by Pearl S. Buck

Cast: Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly

Rating: Not Rated. Not suitable for younger children.

Classic Movie Guide Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars 

DVD Release Date:  01/31/2006

Run Time: 138 minutes 

Studio: Warner Bros. Home Video

Format: Black & White, Standard version

Photo credits: Warner Bros. Home Video/Courtesy of Photo Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.